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Pseudotechnical Language and Conceptual Confusion in Psychology: The Cases of Learning and Memory

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Abstract

Psychology has incorporated terms and expressions from ordinary language as if they conveyed technical meanings. This incorporation has resulted in conceptual confusion, especially in the field of behavior theory where terms such as “learning” and “memory” have been used as concepts describing processes. An analysis is made of these two terms according to their sense in ordinary language in order to show that they do not refer to processes determining behavior.

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An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 13th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Nashville, Tennessee, May 27–31, 1990. The author thanks Peter Harzern for his suggestions for improving the style of this paper.

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Ribes-Iñesta, E. Pseudotechnical Language and Conceptual Confusion in Psychology: The Cases of Learning and Memory. Psychol Rec 41, 361–369 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395118

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